We are being invaded. Not by a foreign country or aliens from another world, but by people who want free education, free health care and jobs — with a few potential terrorists and drug smugglers thrown in.
TV news constantly shows death and destruction on the Mexican side of the border. It often is caused by power struggles between drug cartels. This drug war is overflowing into the United States because, for some reason, the border has not been made safe. The drug smugglers have made Arizona so dangerous that there are signs posted along Interstate 10 warning drivers not to go south of the highway, and Phoenix has become the kidnapping capital of the world. Having lived in Phoenix, I know firsthand of the problem.
Did you know the United States reportedly is arming the drug cartels? According to a story by CBS News, as part of “Project Gunwalker,” guns shops have been allowed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to sell multiple weapons to suspicious customers. With the typical mentality of a government office, the ATF told the gun shop operators to sell the weapons and the ATF would follow the trails and arrest the bad guys. Well, the weapons ended up getting to the Mexican drug cartels and two of the guns were used to murder border patrol agent Brian Terry. You guessed it — no arrests were made and the guns still are in the hands of the cartels.
Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta did a 12-month study of illegal immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders for the time period of January 1999 through April 2006. According to her research, nearly one million sex crimes were committed by illegal aliens.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative advocacy group that favors tighter immigration laws, says illegal aliens cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion each year. The cost to Georgia taxpayers is $2.4 billion. Georgia has the seventh-largest population of illegal aliens at 425,000.
Congress is debating how to control the national deficit. Many suggestions have been tossed around, including overhauling Medicare and other medical-assistance programs to our citizens. That doesn’t seem right when we’re paying billions of dollars for illegal aliens’ medical care.
Our economy is hurting, yet illegal aliens send billions of dollars home to Mexico every year, which helps the Mexican economy. It’s no wonder Mexican President Felipe Calderón doesn’t want the border sealed. Many pregnant Mexican women cross the border to have their children in America, giving the child immediate citizenship, and the parents are allowed to stay.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims that it is not only Mexicans who violate our border, but people from many other countries, too — some of whom could be terrorists. We just don’t know. Even our northern border is open to terrorists since the United States does not share its no-fly list with Canada.
Georgia is doing what the federal government refuses to do — enacting a law with stricter requirements for businesses who hire workers and harsher penalties for anyone who harbors or hires illegal immigrants.
More states are stepping up to stop this flow of illegal immigrants and protect our economy. Georgia, along with Arizona, is making history by doing what needs to be done to protect our economy and our health-care system.

Calderone is a conservative who lives in Midway. He is a professional salesperson and for 30 years has written articles for trade publications in various fields. He was a Courier columnist from 2006-07.